Cheboygan Chiefs, Escanaba to clash in first contest since 1994 season

Wednesday

Sep 11, 2013 at 11:46 PM

The Chiefs will meet up with the Eskymos again when the two teams battle in Cheboygan's home opener at Western Avenue Field at 7 p.m. on Friday night. Though the Eskymos come into the contest 0-2 on the season—with losses two Alpena and Traverse City Central—Coon knows you can't take any Escanaba team lightly. “They're Escanaba, and with the name Escananba comes the tradition of physical football, and they are reckless on the field” Coon said. “They've had some problems at certain points of the season so far, but it's not because of lack of pursuit or hitting ability. It's going to be a physical game, and I think it could be a more physical game than against Marquette.”

Jared Greenleaf Sports Editor, @CDTjared @CdtJared

By JARED GREENLEAFsports@cheboygantribune.comCHEBOYGAN — It’s been nearly 20 years, but Cheboygan head football coach Jack Coon still recalls the last time the Chiefs faced Escanaba. “We lost up there on the last play of the game,” Coon said of the 1994 clash with the Eskymos. “The (Escanaba) quarterback’s name was Charlie Bush, and he threw a post corner route in that far southwest endzone, and beat us, 14-8.” That loss proved to be a painful one for the Chiefs, who finished 7-2 overall, just missing out on the playoffs. “That year in ‘94, we were 7-2, and I think we had five shutouts that year, we had some great players on that fall team, and should’ve qualified for the playoffs, but the way the system was set up at the time, we didn’t,” Coon recalled. “We lost really close to Escanaba on the last play, and then we lost in the last 30 seconds to Petoskey, 17-14. We were that close to being an undefeated team, and our team was a tremendous team, they were.”The Chiefs will meet up with the Eskymos again when the two teams battle in Cheboygan’s home opener at Western Avenue Field at 7 p.m. on Friday night. Though the Eskymos come into the contest 0-2 on the season—with losses two Alpena and Traverse City Central—Coon knows you can’t take any Escanaba team lightly. “They’re Escanaba, and with the name Escananba comes the tradition of physical football, and they are reckless on the field” Coon said. “They’ve had some problems at certain points of the season so far, but it’s not because of lack of pursuit or hitting ability. It’s going to be a physical game, and I think it could be a more physical game than against Marquette.”“At times, the game against Marquette wasn’t as physical as games in the past. I think we (physically) played well against Marquette, but I think Escanaba has so many more challenges with their multiple offensive formations that are really going to challenge our defense.”The Chiefs will be looking to get back on track this week following a 35-7 loss at Marquette on Friday. In a game where nothing seemed to go their way, the Chiefs surrendered five passing touchdowns, while registering just 180 yards offensively. The Chiefs were led by 65 yards rushing from senior fullback Nik Bevier and senior quarterback Luke Harrington, who was seven-of-13 passing for 58 yards. “Last week, it was a bit of a challenge,” Coon explained. “I don’t think we were quite ready offensively to handle the size of them. I thought we played some pretty good rush defense against Marquette, but we probably played one of our poorest games in the secondary that we’ve played in quite some time. Our kids in the secondary are good kids and they’re going to get better. Once you get shellshocked, you get a couple thrown over you, taken out of your hands for interceptions, and you feel like you’re snakebitten. All that does is just snowball on you, so that’s what happened. We lost technique, we lost our footwork and we lost our concentration back there, but we’ve been working hard to get it back this week.”While Cheboygan’s offense will look to have its best game of the season, the Chiefs also hope to stop Escanaba’s offense, which consists of quarterback Travis Heller, as well as skill players Trevan Wendrick, Jake Walker and Cameron Beversluis. “Their two touchdowns have come on long pass plays down the middle of the field,” Coon said of Escanaba. “We’ve been working on it all week, and they’re (Escanaba) thinking that they can throw the ball against Cheboygan, so the task is out there for our secondary. With the multiple formations they run, our front seven, our rush defense has got to be very aware of where their running backs are located and where they set, so we can pick up their tendencies.”On Friday night—which will be Parent Night—the Chiefs will finally play in front of their home fans for the first time this season. That alone should give the entire team a positive boost, Coon said. “We’re looking forward to being home after the game. Not being on a bus, I’m sure our kids are really looking forward to that,” Coon said. “You’re looking forward to debuting in front of your home community, and playing on that beautiful field out there, that’s a big part of it. Just to feel comfortable that, ‘Hey, this is where I live, this is our chance to show them how hard we’re going to play you, too.’ We want people to come in here saying, ‘Oh, no, we got to go to Cheboygan to play.’ We have to show them that they don’t want to come here and play. That’s our goal, is to be as physical as we’ve played all year, and showing our home supporters what we’re made of and how well we can rebound.”The Escanaba-Cheboygan contest can be heard on WCBY 1240 AM, 100.7 FM with Mike Grisdale and Joe Kwiatkowski calling the action, or you can listen to the game on www.cheboyganfootball.com by clicking the “Listen Live” tab. For scoring updates of Thursday’s game, follow @CDTJared on Twitter. The contest can be accessed following the conclusion of Friday night’s game “On Demand” at www.MHSAA.tv. To watch the game, go to the www.MHSAA.tv website, search for Cheboygan, and Bookmark in your browser.